Seriously. California is one of the brokest big governmental entities in the world, spending taxpayer money taken at the barrel of a jail cell willy nilly, yet…

(The Blaze) Democratic lawmakers proposed legislation Tuesday that would require California gun owners to buy liability insurance to cover damages or injuries caused by their weapons.

Similar bills have been introduced in other states following the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. They include Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York.

“I was moved, like many others, being the father of two young children, by the Sandy Hook incident and looking for constructive ways to manage gun violence here in California as well as the rest of the country,” said Assemblyman Philip Ting of San Francisco, who introduced AB231 along with Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez of Los Angeles. “There’s basically a cost that is born by the taxpayers when accidents occur. … I don’t think that taxpayers should be footing those bills.”

Let’s see: Brokeifornia’s taxpayers are footing the bill for the far left leaning government’s lax policies on illegal immigration, which leads to the jails “hosting” a population that is over 1/3rd illegals, hospitals running in the red and seeing their emergency rooms close, and lots of crime. Their social services programs are over-run, as is the educational system.

Ting equated the idea to requiring vehicle owners to buy auto insurance. Gomez argued it would encourage gun owners to take firearms safety classes and keep their guns locked up to get lower insurance rates.

Getting some gun owners to take safety classes is not a bad idea. Heck, some need to be taught how to fire a gun correctly. How would the insurance carrier know about keeping the guns locked up? Might this be a way to have The Government visit and check out gun owner’s homes?

Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said most gun owners already act responsibly and can be sued for damages if they don’t.

He said the proposal is part of an ongoing attempt to “price gun owners out of existence,” particularly the law-abiding poor who live in crime-ridden areas and need protection the most. Criminals would ignore the law, he said.

And that’s the true point of the legislation. While one can actually purchase liability insurance already, we can surely bet that what would come from the government of California would be so expensive that many gun owners couldn’t afford it. And, really, this is legislation that goes after legal gun owners, punishing them for exercising a Constitutional Right, rather than focusing on those who shouldn’t have them.